First we woke up to light snow this morning. At least one forecast says to expect that on Tuesday and Wednesday too.
Next, our son is off from school this week. Not the whole school is off; just his class. Why? Well, they get the time off so they can prepare for an important test this Friday. Now you just might be thinking "isn't the school in a better position to prepare students for tests than parents are?" Ah, but you're thinking way too logically and American-like, you are. Here the schools are notorious for not preparing students for tests. Why would this be?
Over here, teachers are paid incredibly poorly. How poorly? Before the economy went to hell in a handbasket, teachers would be paid about $200. A month. Now with the currency devaluation, they still get paid the same in hryvnia, but it's now worth only about $60. So there's not a lot of motivation to do more than the minimum, plus there's not a lot of competition from others trying to get your position. Because $60 a month.
So the teachers tend to underteach, knowing that they can make more money on the side to bring students up to speed. Now you'd think "why would anybody hire them when they failed to teach the subject correctly in the first place"? Well, they find students in the bordering districts, a few minutes away. In this week of private tutoring, a teacher can make what they would normally make in 2 months in the schools. So there's a strong economic incentive to underteach, because your standard of living, and possibly even your health and survival are on the line. Genius! Pure genius I tell you!
No, this is not a recent development. This has been going on pretty much for 20 years now. This week off comes after they extended the fall break from 1 to 2 weeks, the Christmas break from 1.5 to 2.5 weeks, and the spring break from 1 to 2 weeks. Why? To save money, that's why. My guess is that the teachers did not get paid for those 3 extra weeks off. This is what happens when you don't pay teachers adequately.
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